ASEAN auto sales predicted to rise up to 50 percent in next 10 years
ASEAN auto sales predicted to rise up to 50 percent in next 10 years
MANILA (AFP): Auto sales in Southeast Asia are projected to grow by 50 percent in the next 10 years as economies recover from the 1997 financial crisis, industry experts said here Friday.
The experts from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum said that as vehicle sales in Europe and the United States remained steady, the focus would be on the Southeast Asian market as the region returned to the growth track.
"Automotive growth in markets will be greater in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) part of the world in the next decade," said Ian Grigg, chairman of the second APEC automotive dialogue meeting which ended here Friday.
"I think in the ASEAN region over a period of a decade, we have set the annual automotive market to grow up to 50 percent. So by the year 2010, we will see a market growth in the region of about 50 percent," he said in a news conference.
He said the projection was based on the forecast by ASEAN, which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The 1997 financial crisis hammered the auto market, with total vehicle sales in the region plunging to just 500,000 units in 1998 from close to 1.5 million units in 1996.
Herman Latiff, president of the ASEAN automotive federation, said 800,000 units were sold in 1999 as regional economies began to recover and sales are projected to reach around one million vehicles this year.
"If this trend will go on, maybe in three to four years we can go back to the level of 1996," Latiff said in the news conference.
However, this would depend on several factors such as the full implementation of trade liberalization in the region under the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), he said.
Around 170 auto representatives from the Asia-Pacific region attended the conference, which started last year as a forum to discuss industry-related issues.
Stephen Collins, president of the automotive trade policy council which represents the global trade and investment goals of major US automakers, said prospects for growth in ASEAN "are much more optimistic."
He said the integration of ASEAN's automotive market through AFTA was "critical as the global automotive industry continues to consolidate."
He noted the recent dramatic mergers in the auto industry which saw General Motors Corp. take a substantial stake in Italy's Fiat and Ford Motor Co. tendering an offer for BMW's Land Rover and DaimlerChrysler AG buying into Japan's Mitsubishi Motors Corp.
APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United States and Vietnam.